As NSA builds arsenal, funding for cybermilitary goes up

WASHINGTON — On Florida's Atlantic coast, cyber arms makers working for U.S. spy agencies are bombarding billions of lines of computer code with random data that can expose software flaws the U.S. might exploit.

In Pittsburgh, researchers with a Pentagon contract are teaching computers to scan software for bugs and turn them automatically into weapons. In a converted textile mill in New Hampshire, programmers are testing the combat potential of coding errors on a digital bombing range.

Nationwide, a new league of defense contractors is mining the foundation of the Internet for glitches that can be turned to the country's strategic advantage. They're part of a cybermilitary industrial complex that's grown up in more than a dozen states and employs thousands of civilians, according to 15 people who work for contractors and the government. The projects are so sensitive their funding is classified, and so extensive a bid to curb their scope will be resisted not only by intelligence agencies but also the world's largest military supply chain.

"We're in an arms race," said Chase Cunningham, the National Security Agency's former chief cryptologic technician. The competition to find exploitable bugs before an enemy does is as intense as "the space race and the Cold War combined."

The U.S. has poured billions of dollars into an electronic arsenal built with so-called zero-day exploits, manipulations of missteps or oversights in code that can make anything that runs on a computer chip vulnerable to hackers. They go far beyond flaws in web encryption like SSL and OpenSSL, which the NSA has exploited for years without warning the public about it, according to people with knowledge of the matter.

The agency's stockpile of exploits runs into the thousands, aimed at every conceivable device, and many are not disclosed even to units within the agency responsible for defending U.S. government networks, people familiar with the program said.

Under a directive made public April 11, after Bloomberg News reported the NSA's utilization of the infamous Heartbleed bug — a use the agency denied — the White House said exploits should in most cases be disclosed so computer users can protect themselves.

Michael Daniel, the White House cybersecurity coordinator, said in a blog post this week that "building up a huge stockpile of undisclosed vulnerabilities while leaving the Internet vulnerable and the American people unprotected would not be in our national security interest."

He said the U.S. would continue to develop and use those vulnerabilities to protect the country, however, and that the administration has established "a disciplined, rigorous and high-level decision-making process" when it comes to deciding whether to keep the flaws secret or disclose them so they can be fixed.

The NSA referred to the White House blog in response to a request for comment.

Because the White House directive said there should be exceptions for national security, the impact it will have is uncertain: Using just about any computer bug as a weapon can be justified as the Web plays an increasingly central role in intelligence gathering and kinetic conflict. During his confirmation hearing, Navy Vice Admiral Michael Rogers, director of the NSA and the U.S. Cyber Command, said it would be hard to imagine an international crisis not involving digital weaponry.

It's also hard to imagine the U.S.'s increasingly sophisticated cyberspying and cyberwar operations without its deep arsenal of software exploits, according to current and former arms makers. Those operations would be slower and more susceptible to detection without zero days.

And like giving up sophisticated missiles and bombers, giving up an arsenal of highly valuable computer exploits could leave the country more vulnerable in a future national security crisis, those experts say. Pentagon contractors are working on developing them for the CIA, the Army's recently activated 780th Military Intelligence Brigade, the NSA's Tailored Access Operations corps and other units.

As conventional military spending has been cut back and funding for cyber operations ramped up, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and others better known for jets and tanks are retooling for a new generation of armaments.

"Of countries that are developing industrial-strength cyber capabilities, certainly the U.S. is in the lead," said Nate Freier, a research professor at the U.S. Army War College in defense and military strategy. "The question is whether we understand it well enough to use it without encountering a significant amount of blowback or unintended consequences."

Spy agencies develop exploits themselves, buy them from contractors or steal them from rivals. And the arsenal must be constantly refreshed, as the software at which they're aimed is updated and fixed. Some exploits are used for years; others only for a short time before the flaws on which they are based are patched.

There are more than bugs in the government's arsenal: Hackers at the NSA's Tailored Access Operations, or TAO, have more than 1,000 special tools to aid them in stealing data or manipulating a rival's electronics. As described by three people briefed on the technology, the tools enable rapid, mix-and-match attack capabilities against the most widely used computers, servers and software.

If TAO wants to switch on a microphone in a computer running Microsoft Windows, covertly recording conversations of anyone nearby, a custom module does the job. If it needs to hijack the system that communicates between computers and the controls that operate train-track switches or dam flow gates, there's a plug-in for that too. Dozens of the plug-ins can be loaded onto a single digital warhead, customized to the needs of the mission at hand.

The private sector provides support at all levels. When intelligence agencies were looking three years ago for holes in commercial software that runs video conferencing systems, they reached out to several contractors. Endgame, an Atlanta- based company that once specialized in weaponizing software bugs, provided the exploits, allowing U.S. spies to tap into the systems, according to a person familiar with the contract.

Sara Conneighton, a spokeswoman for Endgame, which is also working on commercial security applications, said she had no comment on business the company may have done with the U.S. government.

Most defense contractors have launched cyber-weapons programs; many have grown through acquisitions of boutique security and Internet-intelligence firms.

Northrop Grumman, which makes the Global Hawk drones, purchased Essex, a NSA supplier, in 2006. Combat radio- maker Harris Corp. purchased Crucial Security, which develops hacking tools, in 2009.

"Cyber money is not shrinking the way the rest of the defense budget is," said Dave Aitel, chief executive officer of Immunity, an offensive security firm in Miami. "That means that all the big beltway bandits must invest heavily to build their cyber teams and that this market is going to continue to grow."

In President Barack Obama's proposed fiscal 2014 budget, the money for cyber operations jumped 20 percent, to $4.5 billion, and the Pentagon placed it on a list of priority programs, an unclassified comptroller's presentation shows.

The Defense Department foresees spending $26.6 billion on cybersecurity efforts for the five years ending in 2019, and requested $5.06 billion for fiscal year 2015, according to Pentagon budget documents.

Of all the major defense contractors, Raytheon may be best positioned to take advantage of the shift through a little- noticed acquisition made six years ago. In 2008, it bought SI Government Solutions, the brainchild of a former computer science professor at the Florida Institute of Technology who developed a method to rapidly scan software code to find flaws that could be exploited by hackers. Since then, the Raytheon division has grown to become one of the most prolific U.S. cyber arms makers, said several people familiar with the subsidiary.

Its engineers develop exploits not only for computers but for every conceivable device with a microchip, from heating and air conditioning systems to printers to industrial computers used in manufacturing, according to a person who was recruited by the company and received a detailed description of the program.

For the CIA, SI Government Solutions specializes in ways to gain access to computers that aren't connected to the Internet, according to a second person familiar with the subsidiary's government contracts. That includes the use of technology that can surreptitiously transfer data from so-called air-gapped computers, which often contain a rival country's most sensitive secrets.

Jason Kello, a Raytheon spokesman, declined to comment on the company's role or to identify its clients. Ed Wallach, who recruits prospective employees for SI Government Solutions, said high demand and the need for specialized skills makes his job difficult, even though the 250-person subsidiary offers a more lucrative benefits package than the rest of Raytheon.

"We may not be building ships, but it's clear this is one area where the government is willing to spend money," he said.

Finding bugs requires the creativity of human researchers as well as the power of computers, which relentlessly pound software programs with unpredictable data to spot a possible malfunction, a technique called fuzzing. The Finnish company Codenomicon was using an advanced fuzzing engine when it detected Heartbleed earlier this month, according to Mikko Varpiola, a Codenomicon co-founder. Researchers from Codenomicon and Google reported both the flaw and a fix for it.

ForAllSecure, a Pittsburgh company founded by researchers from Carnegie Mellon University, has a Pentagon contract to teach computers to scan for software vulnerabilities and automatically generate attack code. Its product, called Mayhem, has been used to analyze more than 37,000 off-the-shelf software programs and found 14,000 bugs in them, including 152 for which the company has developed exploits, said David Brumley, an assistant professor in computer science and engineering at Carnegie Mellon University who is leading the work. Without automation, it can take months to turn a coding mistake into a weapon.

If the U.S. wanted to use an exploit to gather intelligence and not disclose the underlying error's existence, Brumley said he wouldn't object. "We have to be free to be able to strategically and appropriately use cyber weapons," Brumley said.

Unlike Tomahawk missiles, which do one thing and with a high degree of reliability, even the best-crafted exploits are unpredictable, because computer systems and software can come in almost endless combinations of configurations that could foil attacks. Siege Technologies, a startup in a converted 19th century textile mill along the Merrimack River in Manchester, New Hampshire, is working to change that with more than $10 million in contracts from the Department of Defense and other agencies.

For the last four years, Siege has been developing an algorithm that predicts the likelihood of a cyberattack's success, a process that entails running attack code through thousands of test cases to generate models of how effective it would be in the real world, whether it's breaking into power grids to hacking mobile phones. The company's main product is Eprouvette, named after military equipment used to test the strength of gunpowder.

Siege Technologies is considering enhancements that would provide real-time feedback as to whether an exploit actually hit its target, said company founder Jason Syversen, whose background is in cryptography and hacking. Military commanders "want a smoking crater to prove an attack was successful," he said. "We don't have that in cyber."

Syversen said he set out to create the equivalent of the military's so-called probability of kill metric, a statistical analysis of whether an attack is likely to succeed.

"I feel more comfortable working on electronic warfare," he said. "It's a little different than bombs and nuclear weapons — that's a morally complex field to be in. Now instead of bombing things and having collateral damage, you can really reduce civilian casualties, which is a win for everybody."

Marine vet enjoys college baseball after serving in Afghanistan

NASHUA, N.H. — The pressure of performing between the white lines is nothing compared to the real life battles Ariel Ramos endured in the military while fighting to survive outside the wire of his base camp.

After serving an eight-month tour of duty as a Marine in Afghanistan, even the roughest of outings on the mound by Daniel Webster College's senior pitcher from Lowell should be viewed as an enjoyable day at the ballpark.

Ramos, 25, was stationed in Afghanistan from March to October in 2011. He was a gunner on an all-terrain vehicle assigned to guard convoys that were the target of attacks.

Typically, Ramos was in the last vehicle of a convoy, providing security for the commander and fuel trucks. During one mission a truck exploded in front of his vehicle. He saw his share of combat and sustained a pair of very bad concussions.

Ramos, who played his high school ball at Greater Lowell Tech, was stripped of his innocence at far too young an age while serving his country on the front lines in a nation located far from home. But he never lost his love for our national pastime.

After three-and-a-half years of full-time service in the Marines and a stint in the reserves, Ramos made the transition from combat veteran to Division 3 college baseball newcomer in the spring of 2013.

He was 4-1 with a 4.57 ERA in 10 appearances (9 starts) last season. This spring, Ramos, a 6-foot, 210-pound right-hander, is 0-3 in seven appearances (2 starts).

"To make it home safe and get this chance to play at Daniel Webster is unbelievable," said Ramos. "I didn't have playing baseball on my mind when I got home. I had other things and family issues I was attending to. Baseball just came out of nowhere.

"After what I went through in Afghanistan, maybe it was my destiny to play again. I can tell you I cherish every single moment I'm on the field. I look forward to every game, every practice and every bus ride. I love being around my teammates, even if some of them are seven years younger than me and look at me like a grandfather. This experience is something I'll never forget."

His baseball experience helps Ramos smile through the pain of all that he experienced in Afghanistan.

"The baseball field has become my sanctuary," said Ramos. "To me there's nothing better than being on the mound pitching.

"Once I'm handed the ball, I never want to give it up until the game is over. It will always bother me to get lifted for another pitcher because I'm a competitor, but after Afghanistan I know this is just a game."

Ramos graduated from Greater Lowell Tech in 2006. He worked construction for a year before enrolling at Northern Essex Community College. He pitched on the Northern Essex baseball team in 2008 and threw a no-hitter. Ramos also spent time on Bunker Hill Community College's baseball team before being deployed.

After Bunker Hill his ties to baseball consisted of pickup softball games on base in Afghanistan and playing catch at Devens upon his return to the U.S.

It was during his time at Devens that Ramos got in touch with a former coach about possibly helping out with the Chelmsford Merchants. One thing led to another and he ended up pitching for the Merchants in the summer of 2012.

Ramos had enough velocity left in his right arm that the Merchants' coaches contacted former Daniel Webster head coach J.P. Pyne, who is now an assistant at UMaine, on his behalf. He enrolled in Daniel Webster last year and is majoring in homeland security. Ramos hopes to work for the FBI or DEA after getting his degree.

"He certainly has experienced more life lessons than your typical college baseball player," said first-year Daniel Webster head coach Nate Goulet, who was an assistant last season. "He doesn't open up too much about his experiences. I know he was a gunner on a vehicle and he was in the thick of things.

"When we were down in Florida last year he struggled in his first start. I was the bench coach and when he came back to the dugout I asked him how he felt out there? He said, 'Coach I was really nervous.' I said, 'You spent time in Afghanistan where you faced life and death situations. We're playing baseball in Florida. Go out there and have fun.' There's no sense in him ever being nervous about pitching in any baseball game after what he's been through."

Ramos rose to the rank of sergeant and served in the reserves until being honorably discharged earlier this year.

"I was in a leadership position at a young age," said Ramos. "I knew I couldn't show any sign of weakness in front of my subordinates.

"Whenever you went outside the wire you couldn't help but think is this going to be my last mission? Am I going to die today? Will my leg get blown off? You never showed any signs of fear because it would ruin morale. I had to stay positive so the men around me would stay positive."

Ramos, who is hoping to get another year of eligibility since his season at Bunker Hill was cut short, has certainly had a positive impact on Daniel Webster's baseball program. He can still throw in the low to mid-80s consistently, and has worked hard at becoming a well-rounded pitcher, rather than strictly relying on his fastball.

"The thing that makes him such a unique player is his work ethic and I'm sure he gets that from his family and his military background," said Goulet. "He pays attention to detail. He's accountable for his actions. And as a coach that's how I try to run my program. He's a just a great fit for what we're trying to do here.

"He's not a rah-rah guy. He leads by example. He's very well-respected on our team. How can you not respect him after what he's done? Our players look up to him. They notice how he conducts himself day-in and day-out."

Although he'd like to eventually get a shot at pitching at the professional level, Ramos has no idea what his baseball future holds. That's why he plans on making the most of every opportunity he gets to pitch at Daniel Webster.

"I'm willing to do whatever it takes to help the team," said Ramos. "I'm so thankful for getting the chance to play here. Everyone has made me feel at home.

"Some things I experienced will always stay with me. It's part of me. But baseball has helped me get past some things."

Navy’s Fire Scout helicopter drone may get budget cut

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama’s proposed 2015 budget drops funding for purchases of the Navy’s unmanned, rotary-winged Fire Scout aircraft, which takes off and lands from ships and is being built in Moss Point, Miss., home state of Navy Secretary Ray Mabus.

Even more ominous for the Fire Scout program, the Navy’s five-year plan zeroes out its funding after purchasing the first 40 of them, heightening prospects that it might be among defense systems most endangered in a wave of budget cuts.

However, the funding freeze wouldn’t affect deliveries of 17 aircraft of an upgraded model that’s still being tested with money committed previously. That version is larger, is equipped with radar to help identify surveillance targets, can carry weapons and can fly farther than the 110-mile range of the original MQ-8B Fire Scout.

It’s unclear whether the funding cutoff will mean near-term layoffs at the Moss Point plant operated by Northrop Grumman Corp. Warren Comer, a spokesman for the defense contractor, said the plant employed he about 70 workers, but he declined to say whether any of their jobs will be affected.

The company is “working closely with the Navy on the path forward for the Fire Scout program,” he said.

In a summary of cost changes in selected programs through Dec. 31, the Pentagon listed the Fire Scout last month among two systems that were in “critical breach” of the Nunn-McCurdy Amendment, a law aimed at reining in soaring defense costs.

But Navy officials pointed to the Fire Scout’s redesign, including a larger Bell helicopter airframe, as the main reason for a projected spike of more than $650 million from the program’s original cost of $2.79 billion.

Jamie Cosgrove, a spokeswoman for the Naval Air Systems Command, said the service still planned to proceed with the eventual purchase of 119 of the aircraft but that it had reduced the number it hoped to purchase from the original 168.

In a statement, Northrop Grumman said the Fire Scout “has proven to be highly successful” and that the company was working “to meet the urgent needs of naval and special operations forces commanders while incorporating improved capabilities into the Fire Scout system.”

There has been no sign so far as the U.S. House of Representatives weighs defense spending bills that Congress will reinstate the 2015 funding, but the process is still underway.

“We’ve supported language that would continue and sustain the Navy’s Fire Scout program,” said Laura Chambers, a spokeswoman for Republican Rep. Steven Palazzo of Mississippi, whose district includes the Moss Point plant. “We certainly don’t want to see it end.”

The MQ-8 Fire Scout was designed beginning in the early 2000s for use aboard the smaller and relatively inexpensive littoral combat ship, which was conceived to be specially outfitted for missions close to shorelines, including mine-clearing. However, the littoral program has been controversial because of cost surges, questions about the ships’ ability to withstand damages in battle and worries about their limited armaments, said a recent report by the Congressional Research Service.

In February, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel decided to cut purchases of the vessel from 52 to 32, and the Navy said it would now consider other designs for “a capable and lethal small surface combatant.”

Northrop Grumman’s Fire Scouts have mainly been used on guided missile frigates. Capt. Patrick Smith, who oversees the Fire Scout program, said the aircraft had completed more than 4,500 operational hours in support of U.S. activities in Africa.

In 2015 budget planning, he said, the Navy “made a decision to streamline the maritime intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance portfolio” by combining the rapid deployment capabilities of the original MQ-8B Fire Scout model with the MQ-8C, which “will have greater range, endurance and payload capacity,” reducing the need for as many aircraft. While the littoral ship carries two of the original B models, only one C model is needed, Navy officials said.

Obama’s budget “deferred” acquisition of more Fire Scouts, Smith said, “to better align” with deliveries of the littoral ships and allow for continued testing of the new MQ-8C models.

For transgender personnel in military, honesty can end careers

It felt like the pinnacle of his career, working the graveyard shift in a windowless plywood facility in Afghanistan, monitoring a Special Operations mission as it unfolded in real time on grainy video feeds.

After spending hundreds of thousands of dollars training Landon Wilson to intercept communications, the U.S. military was capitalizing on its investment in the young sailor, already regarded as a rising star in a critical, highly technical field.

But shortly after 2 a.m. on Dec. 7, when a superior tapped him on the back and summoned him outside, one of the secrets that mattered most to Wilson began to unravel.

"This Navy record says female, but this paper says male," the grim-faced sergeant major noted, displaying two sets of personnel records. "So, what are you?"

After an awkward pause, Wilson, who joined the Navy as a woman but who has long felt like a man, provided the answer that set in motion the end of his military career: "I am male."

More than two years after the repeal of the law that barred gay men and lesbians from serving in the military openly, transgender servicemembers can still be dismissed from the force without question, the result of a decades-old policy that dates back to an era when gender nonconformity was widely seen as a mental illness.

The policy, however, is now coming under scrutiny as servicemembers like Wilson become more visible. Transgender servicemembers are increasingly undergoing procedures to align their bodies more closely with the genders with which they identify. Medical experts, meanwhile, are urging the Defense Department to rescind a policy they view as discriminatory and outdated, noting that some of America's closest allies, including Canada, Britain and Australia, have done so seamlessly.

Although the American Psychiatric Association revised its manual last year to indicate gender nonconformity is "not in itself a mental disorder," the Defense Department relies on guidelines that describe transgender individuals as sexual deviants, and their condition as a "paraphilia." Thousands of transgender men and women are now serving in the military while remaining in the closet, according to studies.

"It is a terrible tragedy our people are facing in our great country for no other reason than the fact that they want to express their gender," said Joycelyn Elders, a former U.S. surgeon general who last year co-chaired a study that recommended the military lift its ban on transgender personnel. "We could find no credible medical reason for why transgender persons should be discharged or not allowed in the service."

'I'm a boy'

Wilson, 24, was born in Warner Robins, a small city in central Georgia that revolved around the namesake Air Force base. An only child raised by a single mother, he recalls feeling he had been assigned the wrong sex as early as infancy.

"Hey, I'm a boy," he recalls blurting out to his mother as a 4-year-old. "The reaction I got was one that even at that young age made me aware that that was not what you were supposed to feel like. So I suppressed it for as long as I could."

As a teenager, Wilson carried himself as a "masculine female," wearing men's clothes and keeping his hair cropped short. A military career appealed to him for the honor that comes with service. But there was another draw, one that researchers say explains why the percentage of transgender people in the U.S. military is twice as high as it is in the civilian population.

"It comes down to the masculinity of it all," Wilson explained. Men struggling with their temptation to transition to women have told researchers that they see military culture as a barrier to keep them from taking the daunting step. In the reverse scenario, Wilson said, it's an easy environment to fit into. "But I think a lot of people look to the military for a new beginning," he added.

As he enlisted, he was urged to become a cryptologic technician. By Wilson's estimate, the Navy spent at least a half-million dollars getting him the highest-level security clearance in government and training him for an intelligence job that involves intercepting and analyzing communications from foreign governments and extremists.

He developed a reputation as a talented, meticulous, hard-working sailor, said Shayne Allen, a former colleague who was stationed with Wilson at the Navy Information Operations Command in Hawaii.

"Landon was someone who you don't see a lot of in the military these days," Allen said. "He not only checked all the boxes, but went above and beyond."

During his time in Hawaii, Wilson earned several awards and accolades for his work. In a unit of roughly 10,000 sailors, he was recognized as the performer of the quarter in 2012 and the enlisted sailor of the quarter in 2013.

A few months after arriving in Hawaii in May 2012, having read up extensively on the issue and connected online with others who had transitioned, Wilson decided to act. He obtained a formal diagnosis of gender identity disorder from a counselor, a step transgender people often take before undergoing hormone therapy. In November, shortly after coming out to his mother, Wilson began taking hormones once a week — which he described as terrifying and exhilarating.

"I knew everything that was on the table, but at the same time it was completely worth it," he said. "It was like taking my first breath."

The effects were almost immediate for Wilson. The injections deepened his voice and molded his face structure and body shape. His muscles and strength grew, along with light facial hair. Because the therapy triggers a process similar to puberty, it also brought about severe acne.

The onset of his transformation came as gay men and lesbians in the military were starting to reap the benefits of the 2011 repeal of "don't ask, don't tell," the federal law that barred them from serving openly. The change — which had no bearing on transgender servicemembers — offered a slight relief for Wilson, whom many mistook for a lesbian. But he also felt a degree of resentment.

"I knew that the lesbian and gay community were getting all these freedoms and all their privileges," he said. "There was still that silent T that was completely ignored."

Although transgender servicemembers were avid supporters of the repeal, activists who led the effort were careful not to inject the plight of transgender servicemembers into the debate.

"There was a certain reticence to discuss it in any official way with stakeholders for fear of complicating the repeal of 'don't ask, don't tell,'" said Allyson Robinson, a former Army officer and transgender activist. "There was a very clear awareness among all the organizations that worked on 'don't ask, don't tell' that this issue was going to remain outstanding."

Colleagues noticed Wilson's physical changes, but no one seemed to care. He confided in a few people in the military last year, including Allen.

"I said, no harm no foul there," the 20-year-old said in a phone interview, describing his reaction. "To me you've always been Wilson, whether you're a male or a female."

That distinction became strikingly blurred last summer when Wilson volunteered for a year-long deployment in Afghanistan. When he arrived at a Navy medical processing center in Virginia, he was assigned to male barracks and given male uniforms on the first day. That afternoon, medical personnel noticed paperwork indicating a female and ordered a pregnancy test, but inexplicably kept him housed and clothed as a man.

"I was like, all right, this is going to get very awkward once they see something," he remembers thinking.

Later that summer, when Wilson arrived to a base in South Carolina for combat training, he again was assigned to male barracks. Wilson's deployment paperwork started reflecting the gender everyone from that point forward assumed him to be. And because his former name, which he has since changed legally, is androgynous, no one asked questions. The men who shared his living quarters assumed he was a man. Wilson said that all the shower facilities he used after basic training included private shower stalls.

The three weeks he spent in there were among the happiest in his life, Wilson said, as he rambled through the woods wearing heavy body armor and carrying weapons, just one of the boys.

"It felt like being part of this brotherhood that you hear about so often when you talk about the military," he said. "It was invaluable."

A secret exposed

On Nov. 16, he was put to work just hours after arriving in Afghanistan. During 12-hour night shifts that began at 4 p.m., he was responsible for intercepting communications by militants in order to guide Special Operations troops carrying out missions. For the first time in his career, the intelligence he was gathering was being put to immediate use and resulting in constant expressions of gratitude. Feeling indispensable in a critical job, Wilson started worrying less about being discovered.

"At that point, I had no concerns about it," he said. "I felt confident about my ability to do my job and I was hopeful that would be enough if everything did come out. That that would be enough to stay."

The secret was exposed in late November when Wilson's commanders in Afghanistan spoke to his superiors in Hawaii to make arrangements for a promotion he was due. Officials in Hawaii used female pronouns to refer to Wilson, while their counterparts at Bagram were referring to a male petty officer third class.

"My Afghanistan leadership was like, 'I have no idea who you are talking about,' " Wilson said. "We don't have a female with that last name. I think you have the wrong shop."

After Wilson came clean, commanders in Afghanistan decided to send him home. Within six hours, he was packed and loaded onto a plane. As the sun rose that morning, his prevailing concern was who would fill his slot inside the ramshackle intelligence fusion cell.

"My main concern was not: I could potentially be losing my career, but what about the guys on the ground," he said, noting that there was no one else on base trained to do the job.

On the flight home, he was surrounded by war-weary troops elated about the thought of seeing loved ones back home and indulging in the comforts of life in America. Wilson wanted nothing more than to go back to war.

"I didn't get to say goodbye to anyone," he said. "I have no idea what they told people."

When he arrived in Hawaii a few days later, his commanders promoted him. Weeks later, he received a commendation letter from Vice Admiral Jan Tighe, who oversaw his unit. Superiors were respectful and at times seemed apologetic, said Wilson, who recalls a sergeant major telling him: "You know, we are overreacting because we have no idea what to do with you."

After weeks of deliberations, a military lawyer gave Wilson a choice: "You can transition, or you can serve," the sailor said he was told.

That wasn't a choice to Wilson, who soon signed his honorable discharge papers and left Hawaii.

A Navy spokesman said that officials in Wilson's command did not wish to be interviewed about the sailor's ordeal. "Petty Officer Wilson served honorably," Lt. Cmdr. Chris Servello said in an email.

A Pentagon spokeswoman, Lt. Col. Cathy Wilkinson, said the Defense Department does not know how many servicemembers have been discharged for being transgender. She said the Pentagon has no plan to change its medical qualification standards based on the changes to the psychiatric association's entry on gender disorder, but she noted that medical policies are being constantly reviewed.

"In doing these reviews, the department considers that servicemembers must serve in austere environments, many of which make necessary and ongoing treatments related to sex reassignment and many other conditions untenable," she said in an emailed statement.

Since he was discharged a month ago, Wilson has been sleeping on an air mattress on the floor of a friend's apartment in Manhattan. Having kept his security clearance, he could easily return to the same line of work for an intelligence agency or even the Pentagon, as a civilian. But he yearns to wear the uniform again.

"The military gave me the backbone to transition, to be who I am, because they look so fondly on honor and courage and all those things you have to have to be fully authentic," he said. "I don't think I would have gotten to where I am today without that."

Former US Army Ranger missing off coast of Belize

By Clifford Davis

The Florida Times-Union, Jacksonville

Published: May 3, 2014

A 29-year-old former Army Ranger went missing off the coast of Belize Tuesday when the kayak he was in flipped over near a reef off Ambergris Caye.

Wrangler Shane Leesman, of Austin Texas, was last seen about noon when he and another former Ranger pushed off from the beach on a red kayak.

The kayak was seen capsizing near a reef by an American on the beach, according to a police report provided by the San Pedro Sun.

Family and friends back in the states were expecting the pair, who now work as security contractors, back today.

"He's just an all around good guy," said Leesman's friend David Corley. "He really opened up to me about what went on over there, I guess because I'm a veteran too."

Leesman's companion, Cpl. Bradley Evans Josker, and the kayak were found about 5 p.m. by the Belize Coast Guard.

Belizian officials said they are hopeful they'll find the three-tour veteran of Afghanistan.

"The chances of survival in these conditions are very unlikely for a normal person but because he is physically fit, it increases his chances of survival by a bit," Belize Chief Meteorological Officer Dennis Gonguez told the San Pedro Sun.

Corley, a wounded combat veteran of Iraq, said he's still clinging to hope.

"I'm really hoping for a miracle," he said. "He's like a brother."

Governor: Maine's 133rd Engineer Battalion isn't going anywhere

AUGUSTA, Maine — In an interview Friday, Gov. Paul LePage said reports that the Maine Army National Guard’s 133rd Engineer Battalion would be relocated to Pennsylvania had been “blown out of proportion.”

As commander in chief of the state’s National Guard, LePage said he would fight to keep the 500-member battalion in the Pine Tree State. He also expressed confidence in Brig. Gen. James Campbell, the adjutant general of the Maine National Guard.

“The general is doing his job, and he’s looking into all options, but there’s nothing there,” LePage said. “I make the final decision, and I’m telling you, there’s nothing there.”

Congressional staffers for U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree, D-Maine, were briefed Tuesday by Maine Army National Guard Col. Jack Mosher, who allegedly said a plan had been floated to save money by consolidating Army Guard units nationwide.

Under the plan, engineer units in Pennsylvania and Texas would be dissolved. The 133rd would be relocated to Pennsylvania and replaced in Maine with an infantry battalion. If the restructuring proposal goes forward, the 133rd would be moved to Pennsylvania sometime between 2017 and 2019, said Pingree spokesman Willy Ritch.

Reports of potential changes or downsizing of Maine’s Army National Guard are not new. In March, Campbell told lawmakers during his annual address to the Legislature that efforts in Washington, D.C., could result in changes to the Maine Army National Guard.

Some powerful figures in the Pentagon were attempting to use the current fiscal climate in the capital to force downsizing of the National Guard. During closed-door meetings, Campbell said, senior leaders in the active Army were attempting to convince the National Guard to “unnecessarily cut its program.”

Said Campbell: “If these plans are allowed to pass, our current Maine Army National Guard of 2,122 soldiers — already reduced by more than 500 soldiers since 2007 — will potentially be reduced by another 200.”

Campbell said that would be the smallest National Guard contingent since Maine was granted statehood in 1820.

LePage also suggested Friday that reports intimating that Maine was losing its 133rd Battalion were political in nature.

“It’s a total fabrication,” he said. “It’s a political year.”

Pingree has long been a vocal supporter of the National Guard and has co-sponsored a bill in the U.S. House of Representatives to maintain current Guard levels in the wake of proposals in D.C. to draw down the number of military personnel, which would reduce the number of both active Army members and the Guard.

There are 167 members of the 133rd deployed in Afghanistan working to downsize and consolidate bases there as the United States prepares to withdraw its remaining military forces from the country.

South Korea subway crash strikes nerve after deadly ferry sinking

SEOUL, South Korea — A subway train plowed into the back of another train at a station in South Korea's capital on Friday, injuring about 200 people, including about 150 who were hospitalized with bruises and other mostly minor injuries, officials said.

Local media reported there were long delays in providing instructions to passengers about what to do. That struck a nerve in South Korea, where the captain in an April 16 ferry sinking that killed hundreds of people has been condemned for waiting 30 minutes to issue an evacuation order as the ship sank.

A preliminary investigation suggested the train's automatic distance control system may have malfunctioned, subway officials said.

The driver of the moving train told officials that he applied the emergency brake after noticing a stop signal but wasn't able to halt in time, Seoul Metro official Jeong Su-young told a briefing.

Fire officer Kim Kyung-su said emergency officials arrived at the scene about two to three minutes after a passenger informed them of the accident.

Kim said about 200 people received relatively minor injuries except for two who suffered fractures and serious bruises. He said about 150 people remained hospitalized.

Several hospitals said none of their patients were seriously hurt. Hanyang University Medical Center said it treated 36 subway passengers for minor external injuries.

Lee Dong-hyun, a passenger on the incoming train, described a chaotic scene after the crash. "It stopped suddenly ... and everyone screamed," he said. Lee said the door leading to the next car was crushed and couldn't be opened.

The accident comes as South Koreans are criticizing the government for lax safety practices that many feel contributed to the sinking of the ferry Sewol, which left more than 300 people, mostly high school students, dead or missing.

The subway accident received extensive media coverage and was the top news on television and social media sites.

"I was so surprised and wasn't sure what to do," said Lim Seong-eun, 26, who commutes by subway every day.

Lim said her mother called her to tell her about the accident and ask if she was on the train.

"It's been less than one month since the Sewol disaster and I'm a little anxious that an accident like this happened in a place used by lots of people," Lim said.

Associated Press writers Youkyung Lee and Kim Yong-ho contributed to this report.

At least 350 dead, thousands missing after landslide in Afghanistan

KABUL, Afghanistan — A landslide triggered by heavy rain buried large sections of a remote northeastern Afghan village on Friday, killing at least 350 people and leaving more than 2,000 missing. Villagers looked on helplessly and the governor appealed for shovels to help dig through the mass of mud that flattened every home in its path.

The mountainous area in Badakhshan province has experienced days of heavy rain and flooding, and the side of a cliff collapsed onto the village of Hobo Barik around midday. Landslides and avalanches are frequent in Afghanistan, but Friday's was one of the deadliest.

Gov. Shah Waliullah Adeeb said more than 2,000 people were missing after the landslide buried some 300 homes — about a third of all the houses in the area.

At least 350 people were confirmed dead, according to Ari Gaitanis, a spokesman from the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan. He said the U.N. was working with authorities on the ground to rescue people still trapped.

The governor said rescue crews were working but didn't have enough equipment.

"It's physically impossible right now," Adeeb said. "We don't have enough shovels; we need more machinery."

Badakhshan provincial police chief, Maj. Gen. Faziluddin Hayar said rescuers had pulled seven survivors and three bodies from the mounds of mud and earth but held out little hope that more survivors would be found.

"Now we can only help the displaced people. Those trapped under the landslide and who have lost lives, it is impossible to do anything for them," Hayar said.

Video footage of the scene showed a large section of the mountain collapsed, sending mud and earth tumbling onto the village below.

The landslide was likely caused by heavy rain, said Abdullah Homayun Dehqan, the province's director for National Disaster Department. He said floods last week in different districts of the province killed four people and eight more were still missing.

Landslides occur frequently in the province, but they generally happen in remote areas and produce far fewer casualties, said Mohammad Usman Abu Zar from the Meteorology Department of Badakhshan province.

Authorities evacuated a nearby village over concerns about further landslides, the governor said. Dehqan said blankets and tents had been sent and about 400 people from nearby villages had gathered to help with the rescue effort.

Hayar said the landslide happened about 1 p.m. Friday, a day of worship in Afghanistan when many families would have been at home instead of at work.

President Barack Obama, speaking at a White House news conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, expressed his sympathy for the Afghan people.

"Just as the United States has stood with the people of Afghanistan through a difficult decade, we stand ready to help our Afghan partners as they respond to this disaster, for even as our war there comes to an end this year, our commitment to Afghanistan and its people will endure," he said.

Badakhshan province, nestled in the Hindu Kush and Pamir mountain ranges and bordering China, is one of the most remote in the country. The area has seen few attacks from insurgents following the 2001 U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan.

Afghans living in the rugged mountains of northern Afghanistan are used to natural disasters. A landslide in Baghlan province, also in northeastern Afghanistan, killed 71 people in 2012. After days of digging unearthed only five bodies, authorities decided to halt the recovery effort and turn the area into a memorial for the dead.

Avalanches are also a factor. In February 2010, when more than 170 people were killed at the 12,700-foot-high (3,800-meter) Salang Pass, which is the major route through the Hindu Kush mountains that connects the capital to the north.

Associated Press Writer Rebecca Santana contributed to this report.

At least 350 dead, thousands missing after landslide in Afghanistan

KABUL, Afghanistan — A landslide triggered by heavy rain buried large sections of a remote northeastern Afghan village on Friday, killing at least 350 people and leaving more than 2,000 missing. Villagers looked on helplessly and the governor appealed for shovels to help dig through the mass of mud that flattened every home in its path.

The mountainous area in Badakhshan province has experienced days of heavy rain and flooding, and the side of a cliff collapsed onto the village of Hobo Barik around midday. Landslides and avalanches are frequent in Afghanistan, but Friday's was one of the deadliest.

Gov. Shah Waliullah Adeeb said more than 2,000 people were missing after the landslide buried some 300 homes — about a third of all the houses in the area.

At least 350 people were confirmed dead, according to Ari Gaitanis, a spokesman from the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan. He said the U.N. was working with authorities on the ground to rescue people still trapped.

The governor said rescue crews were working but didn't have enough equipment.

"It's physically impossible right now," Adeeb said. "We don't have enough shovels; we need more machinery."

Badakhshan provincial police chief, Maj. Gen. Faziluddin Hayar said rescuers had pulled seven survivors and three bodies from the mounds of mud and earth but held out little hope that more survivors would be found.

"Now we can only help the displaced people. Those trapped under the landslide and who have lost lives, it is impossible to do anything for them," Hayar said.

Video footage of the scene showed a large section of the mountain collapsed, sending mud and earth tumbling onto the village below.

The landslide was likely caused by heavy rain, said Abdullah Homayun Dehqan, the province's director for National Disaster Department. He said floods last week in different districts of the province killed four people and eight more were still missing.

Landslides occur frequently in the province, but they generally happen in remote areas and produce far fewer casualties, said Mohammad Usman Abu Zar from the Meteorology Department of Badakhshan province.

Authorities evacuated a nearby village over concerns about further landslides, the governor said. Dehqan said blankets and tents had been sent and about 400 people from nearby villages had gathered to help with the rescue effort.

Hayar said the landslide happened about 1 p.m. Friday, a day of worship in Afghanistan when many families would have been at home instead of at work.

President Barack Obama, speaking at a White House news conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, expressed his sympathy for the Afghan people.

"Just as the United States has stood with the people of Afghanistan through a difficult decade, we stand ready to help our Afghan partners as they respond to this disaster, for even as our war there comes to an end this year, our commitment to Afghanistan and its people will endure," he said.

Badakhshan province, nestled in the Hindu Kush and Pamir mountain ranges and bordering China, is one of the most remote in the country. The area has seen few attacks from insurgents following the 2001 U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan.

Afghans living in the rugged mountains of northern Afghanistan are used to natural disasters. A landslide in Baghlan province, also in northeastern Afghanistan, killed 71 people in 2012. After days of digging unearthed only five bodies, authorities decided to halt the recovery effort and turn the area into a memorial for the dead.

Avalanches are also a factor. In February 2010, when more than 170 people were killed at the 12,700-foot-high (3,800-meter) Salang Pass, which is the major route through the Hindu Kush mountains that connects the capital to the north.

Associated Press Writer Rebecca Santana contributed to this report.

More than 40 die in Ukraine clashes, deadliest day in weeks

KIEV, Ukraine — In the bloodiest day of violence since Ukraine’s former president fled his nation in February, as many as 41 people died Friday in clashes across the country, bringing Ukraine seemingly to the brink of war.

Most of the deaths happened in Odessa, a city hundreds of miles from the primary trouble spots in eastern Ukraine and that until Friday had been mostly devoid of violent protests. Police there said that at least 38 people had died, most of them in a fire that raged through a union hall pro-Russian protesters used as a base. Still unknown was whether those who died had been involved in clashes outside the building and what role, if any, those clashes had in sparking the blaze.

In the east, military confrontations between Ukrainian troops and pro-Russian militias killed at least three people and perhaps as many as seven. Two of the dead were soldiers, killed when their helicopters were blown from the sky by surface-to-air missiles manned by pro-Russian fighters. At least one pro-Russian separatist, and perhaps as many as five, died in fighting in Slovyansk, the city in the embattled Donetsk province that has been the primary flashpoint for the conflict.

The events triggered Russian belligerence at the United Nations in New York, where that country’s ambassador, Vitaly Churkin, warned during a meeting of the Security Council that there would be consequences for Ukraine’s military moves. “Those who gave the criminal order to unleash bloodshed will bear full responsibility for what happens,” he said.

Russia has maintained that it has a responsibility to protect Russian-speaking Ukrainians, who account for at least a quarter of the Ukrainian population nationwide and about half the population in the east. It was the same justification given for moving about 20,000 troops into Crimea in late February and March, leading to what the United States and its allies say was the illegal annexation of the Black Sea peninsula.

There was no sign, however, that Russian troops had crossed into Ukraine. But Ukrainian news reports said would-be Russian saboteurs had been intercepted at the border, and President Barack Obama made it clear in a Washington news conference that U.S. officials remain certain that Russia is stoking the troubles and perhaps arming the militants.

“The notion that this is some spontaneous uprising in eastern Ukraine is belied by all the evidence of well-organized, trained, armed militias with the capacity to shoot down helicopters,” Obama said. “Generally, local protesters don’t possess that capacity of surface-to-air missiles or whatever weapons were used to shoot down helicopters, tragically.”

At the U.N., Churkin accused the United States of also stoking the violence. “There was English on the radio waves as well as among those attacking,” he said. “English-speaking foreigners were noted in Slovyansk.”

But the idea was overwhelmingly rejected at the U.N., where the French representative, Gerard Araud, called Russia “a pyromaniac fireman” and U.S. Ambassador Samantha Power accused Russia of replicating in eastern Ukraine the same “charade” it had employed to annex Crimea.

She said Russia’s “ridiculous and false” accusations of foreign involvement in the Ukrainian operation suggested that the Kremlin was looking for a pretext to invade with troops posing as peacekeepers.

In Kiev, the president of the interim government, Oleksandr Turchynov, said Ukraine had “started the active phase of anti-terrorist operations” because militants were now “terrorizing the entire Donetsk region.” He, too, accused Russia of direct involvement in the fighting in the east.

“Our security forces are fighting mercenaries of foreign states; terrorists and criminals who are taking hostages, killing and torturing … threatening the territorial integrity and stability of Ukraine,” he said.

Turchynov, who’d said earlier this week that “the vast majority of law enforcement officers in the east are incapable of performing their duties,” acknowledged Friday that “the operation is not as fast as we would like.” Complicating it, he said, was the separatists’ “hiding behind civilians, hiding behind hostages and firing on us from multifamily apartment homes.”

He added: “The criminals suffered heavy losses: many killed, wounded and taken prisoner.”

Until Friday, what the Ukrainian government calls its anti-terror operation had been largely ineffective in rousting pro-Russia separatists from the dozens of buildings they’ve occupied in the country’s eastern regions. But Friday they appeared to have had some success.

In Slovyansk, a city of about 125,000 people that’s the seat of power for pro-Russia separatists, Ukrainian officials said their forces had overrun at least nine separatist checkpoints and had the town surrounded.

As the Ukrainian military moved in, a separatist leader who’s the self-proclaimed mayor of Slovyansk, Vycheslav Ponomariov, released a video in which he asked women and children to stay at home and men with weapons to rise to the defense of the city. “We were attacked. Our city is besieged; there are losses,” he said. “We will win.”

Ukrainian news reports said the separatists had positioned women and children at the barricades as human shields, stopping national troops from advancing.

The Russian RIA Novosti news service quoted a spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin who gave every indication that the government in Moscow was preparing to take further steps.

“Kiev authorities have launched a punitive operation that destroyed the last hope for the Geneva accords to be effective,” the news service said, referring to an April 17 agreement among the United States, the European Union, Russia and Ukraine to take steps to defuse the crisis.

The government move into Slovyansk came the same day that a Russian delegation arrived in the city of Donetsk, allegedly to try to bring about the release of six observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, whom pro-Russia separatists had taken hostage, accusing them of being NATO spies. But the delegation arrived without the knowledge of or an invitation from the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry.

At least 25 other people suspected of being pro-Ukrainian also reportedly are being held hostage in Donetsk.

Donetsk separatists also seized a railway control station, cutting electricity to lines and shutting down most rail traffic in the region.

Meanwhile, separatists in Lugansk, in the easternmost tip of Ukraine, agreed to leave buildings they’d occupied earlier this week and from which they’d raised Russian flags.

Lesley Clark and Jonathan S. Landay of the McClatchy Washington Bureau contributed to this report.

Former President Bush leads 62-mile bike ride for wounded veterans

CRAWFORD, Texas — Former President George W. Bush pedaled off Friday on the second of a three-day mountain bike ride with 16 "extraordinary" wounded veterans to honor their service and celebrate their recoveries.

Bush, 67, planned to ride the full 100 kilometers (62 miles) of the fourth annual Warrior 100K, accompanied all the way by the current and retired military personnel who were wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"The thing that amazes me is that rather than allowing life's difficult circumstances to overwhelm them, they've turned the circumstances into good by showing courage and hard work and sacrifice," Bush told reporters before heading off on a 30-mile ride on his ranch in Crawford in Central Texas and along nearby country roads.

Friday's route zigzagged through the property's wildflower-strewn prairie and along a trail on a ridge overlooking a creek.

"I'm surrounded by extraordinary people, people who have volunteered to serve our nation and in so doing became injured," he said.

U.S. Army Master Sgt. Chris Demars, who was wounded in two separate attacks in Afghanistan in the space of just 10 days in 2011, was among the riders. The attacks — a roadside bomb and a motorcycle suicide bomber — left him with traumatic brain injuries, two broken legs and multiple shrapnel wounds. He also suffered a back injury and both his eardrums were blown out.

Demars, 45, has since fought to overcome post-traumatic stress disorder along with his many physical ailments, and says he admires Bush's efforts to reduce the stigma of the condition. Bush asserted earlier this year that "disorder" should be removed from the condition's name, underlining that it is entirely treatable.

After being flown back to the U.S. for treatment, Demars, of Gill, Massachusetts, was recovering in a hospital when he saw news coverage of Bush's first Warrior 100K. He told his parents he would take part the next year. It took him three years to recover sufficiently to join the ride, which he described as an "awesome" experience.

He said bicycling provides the kind of excitement that he misses from overseas assignments.

"You get out there and you hit a good descent with some tricky spots and you almost crash a couple of times — it's good. It keeps that adrenaline rush going," said Demars, who noted that such exercise is also a good way to combat times he's feeling agitated.

The ride is part of the Military Service Initiative organized by the George W. Bush Institute, a part of the George W. Bush Presidential Center on the Southern Methodist University campus in Dallas.

Ukraine launches offensive against separatists; dozens die in Odessa

SLOVYANSK, Ukraine — Ukraine launched an offensive against separatist forces for control of a besieged eastern city Friday, while clashes between pro- and anti-government activists in the previously calm southern port of Odessa led to a fire that police said killed 31 people.

The first serious offensive by the government in Kiev and the dozens of deaths in Odessa sharply escalated the crisis that has led to the worst tensions between Russia and the West since the Cold war. The Kremlin said the battle for the separatist-held city of Slovyansk effectively destroyed the Geneva pact aimed at cooling the unrest in the deeply divided country.

Oleksandr Turchynov, Ukraine's acting president, said many insurgents were killed or wounded in the eastern offensive that also underlined the military's vulnerability. The military action came two days after Kiev said it had lost control of eastern Ukraine.

Both sides said two Ukrainian helicopters were shot down by the insurgents near Slovyansk, killing two crew members, while authorities said another seven people also died: three separatist gunmen, two soldiers and two civilians.

By nightfall, Ukrainian troops and armored personnel carriers blocked all major roads into Slovyansk, and the central part of the city remained in the hands of pro-Russia gunmen, according to Associated Press journalists inside. Most shops were closed, and the few that were open were crowded with customers stocking up on supplies.

Sporadic gunfire was heard in Slovyansk's downtown late Friday, while Russian news reports said there were armed clashes in the nearby town of Kramatorsk. There was no immediate independent confirmation of fighting.

The Ukrainian Security Service said one helicopter was downed with a surface-to-air missile, adding that the sophisticated weapon undercut Russia's claims the city of 125,000 people was simply under the control of armed locals.

"Ukrainian security forces so far are not ready for large-scale military actions; moreover, such actions could provoke Russia's invasion," said Kiev-based political analyst Volodymyr Fesenko.

Russia has massed tens of thousands of troops in areas near Ukraine's border. Kiev claims Moscow is preparing to invade and that it is fomenting the unrest in the east, where insurgents have seized government buildings in about a dozen cities and towns. The Kremlin denies the allegations, but Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has warned Russia would respond to attacks on its citizens or interests in the east.

Unlike eastern Ukraine, Odessa had been largely tranquil since the February toppling of President Viktor Yanukovych, who fled to Russia. But clashes erupted Friday between pro-Russians and government supporters in the key port on the Black Sea coast, located 550 kilometers (330 miles) from the turmoil in the east.

Police said the deadly fire broke out in a trade union building but did not give details on how it started. Earlier, police said at least three people had died in a clash between the two sides in the city of 1 million.

According to Ukrainian news reports, the pro-Kiev demonstrators broke up an encampment of Moscow supporters outside the trade union building. The latter took refuge in the building, which then caught on fire.

Odessa police spokesman Volodymyr Shasbliyenko told AP the fire apparently was caused by Molotov cocktails. He had no further details or identities of the victims.

Russia's Foreign Ministry said the fatal fire was "yet another manifestation of the criminal irresponsibility of the Kiev authorities who indulge insolent radical nationalists ... which are engaging in a campaign of physical terror" against those in Ukraine who want more autonomy for the pro-Moscow regions.

A spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin said the Ukrainian offensive "effectively destroyed the last hope for the implementation of the Geneva agreement" of two weeks ago that aimed to defuse the crisis. But Dmitry Peskov also said Russia "continues to undertake consistent efforts on de-escalation."

In Washington, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Barack Obama warned that Russia could be hit by new sanctions from the U.S. and the European Union if it continues disruptive actions in Ukraine. Previous sanctions are showing signs of significant effect on the Russian economy.

The fighting in Slovyansk, a city about 160 kilometers (100 miles) from the Russian border, broke out around dawn. Stella Khorosheva, a spokeswoman for the insurgents, said three fighters and two civilians were killed in the clashes.

The Russian state television channel Rossiya-24 showed one man who they said was a wounded helicopter pilot surrounded by pro-Russia forces.

Several foreign news crews, meanwhile, were detained for several hours Friday by nervous pro-Russia militia before being released. CBS reported that one journalist was beaten.

Slovyansk is strategically key because Ukraine has a huge stockpile of automatic rifles and other light weapons near the city, according to a commentary Friday for Britain's Royal United Services Institute defense think-tank.

"Today, Kiev has upped the ante in the standoff and will test Russian resolve to prevent the Ukrainian government from regaining control of the city and its light weapons stockpile," the think-tank authors wrote.

Turchynov said some government troops and police in eastern Ukraine were "either helping or cooperating with terrorist organizations." He said Ukrainian forces were working to prevent the unrest from spreading other areas.

At Russia's request, the U.N. Security Council met in an emergency session Friday on Ukraine.

Russian ambassador Vitaly Churkin demanded a "swift halt of all violence," but Western powers scoffed at his country's indignation.

"Russia ... has released bands of thugs on Ukraine ... and is suddenly discovering this mixture might escape its control," French ambassador Gerard Araud said.

Ukraine, a nation of 46 million, is torn between those in the west who favor closer ties with Europe and many Russian-speakers in the east who look toward Moscow. Separatists who have seized government buildings in at least 10 eastern cities amid fears that Moscow is seeking a pretext to invade or annex more territory like it did with Ukraine's Black Sea peninsula of Crimea in March.

The peace deal in Geneva last month aimed to get those who had seized government buildings in Ukraine to leave and calm down the tensions that have prompted the United States and the European Union to slap Russia with rounds of sanctions.

The Russian Foreign Ministry accused Ukraine's government of using "terrorists" from ultranationalist organizations for Friday's military operation. It also claimed that Kiev deployed tanks and helicopters that were "conducting missile strikes on protesters," something that neither side in Ukraine reported.

An AP crew also saw no evidence of missile strikes in Slovyansk.

Russia also cited insurgents in Ukraine as saying that some of the government attackers spoke English — an insinuation that the Ukrainian military was getting some help from the West.

TV crews from Sky News and CBS were detained Friday on the outskirts of Slovyansk. Sky News said in a statement its crew was detained for several hours but is now "safe and well."

CBS correspondent Clarissa Ward told "CBS This Morning" that she and her crew were stopped by pro-Russia insurgents at a checkpoint just outside Slovyansk, then taken to a nearby town where they were blindfolded tightly with masking tape. They were released several hours later, unharmed except for one man who was beaten.

Kiev's interim government came to power after Yanukovych fled, drummed out by months of anti-government protests. Ukraine plans to hold a new presidential election on May 25.

Heintz reported from Moscow. Nataliya Vasilyeva in Moscow and Maria Danilova in Kiev contributed to this report.

West Point continues domination in cyber event

Punctured firewalls. Denial-of-service attacks. Rampant viruses. Insecure laptops linked to a secured network by general officers with more stars than cyber-sense.

Teams from all of the nation’s service academies spent three days in early April parrying simulated attacks directed by National Security Agency experts. About 30 U.S. Military Academy cadets scrambled to stop threats from all corners in what their team leader, senior Hayden Tippett, described as a “complex game of Whac-A-Mole.”

After the NSA compiled the stats, the U.S. Military Academy had notched the most moles, edging Air Force to win the Cyber Defense Exercise for the seventh time in the contest’s 14 years.

Tippett’s other service-academy rivalry experience has been on a grander scale as a fullback for the Army football team, but it hasn’t been quite as successful. Regardless, he and his cyberwarfare team got to “sing second” when the news came out April 11 — or fifth, really, after Navy, Air Force, the Coast Guard and the Merchant Marine all lost to Army.

“It’s a different group of men going for a different prize,” said Tippett, “but still a great feeling.”

Students build their simulated networks and spend sleepless nights preparing for the types of cyber-curveballs that could come from an NSA-backed “red team” of hackers. There were nights school officials locked the computer room, Tippett said, because past years’ teams had slept under their desks too often.

On the morning of April 8, readiness gave way to reaction as the hackers descended. Along with the typical bashing of firewalls, the contest brought some tricks: Teams were asked to install a web application on their network that was vulnerable to attacks, for example.

And then there was the simulated general, bearing unwelcome gifts.

“We had to let him access the network with a compromised laptop, because you can never talk a general out of sticking his laptop on your network,” Tippett said.

A long cyber-march

Attacks continued for the better part of three days. Scores were tabulated based on how well the network’s services held up and how secure they remained, along with other factors.

The NSA provided a running tally. Tippett and his team didn’t buy it.

“We always considered it a lie,” he said “We didn’t want to rely on iffy standings, whether we were edging ahead of [other academies].”

Army held the lead when the exercise ended, according to the unofficial scores, but officials had more data to crunch before declaring a winner. The cadets kept their edge, and the senior-dominated squad had a lasting victory to savor in their final weeks before graduation.

“It was really incredible,” Tippett said. “We know each other really well. You’d think after two straight weeks in the lab that we would all want to go our separate ways, but it was interesting — we were all hanging out afterward. It spoke toward the camaraderie we had as a team.”

That shared experience, from all teams involved, is one that event organizers hope they’ll carry throughout their time in service.

“Once they’ve been through an exercise like CDX, they haven’t just read about being under attack, they’ve felt it,” said Neal Ziring, technical director of NSA’s Information Assurance Directorate, in the release announcing the Army win. “And that is the best thing for them to bring into their military careers defending our nation.”

Future contestants will benefit from in-depth feedback from NSA officials into the strengths and weaknesses of the simulated networks: The red team will detail how it exploited different systems, Tippett said, with teams able to strengthen next year’s efforts based on the report.

That could give Army an edge as it tries to extend its cyber bragging rights.

“It’s always a good time when you can beat Navy and beat Air Force,” said Tippett, who chose infantry for his post-academy service and plans to include cyberwarfare in his graduate studies.

General's opinion on Benghazi draws a rebuke

WASHINGTON — A retired U.S. general came under sharp criticism from a Republican committee chairman on Thursday after testifying that the Obama administration reacted weakly to the deadly 2012 attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya.

Retired Brig. Gen. Robert Lovell, the star witness at a House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing, testified that U.S. forces "should have tried" to get to the outpost in time to help save the lives of U.S. Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans. He blamed the State Department for not making stronger requests for action.

A few hours later, the powerful chairman of the Armed Services panel, Rep. Howard "Buck" McKeon, R-Calif., challenged the testimony of Lovell, who was in U.S. Africa Command's headquarters in Germany monitoring the attack.

The general "did not serve in a capacity that gave him reliable insight into operational options available to commanders during the attack, nor did he offer specific courses of action not taken," McKeon said.

The disagreement muddied a Republican attempt to raise fresh questions about the Obama administration's handling of the Sept. 11, 2012, assault by armed militants. The GOP has accused the administration of downplaying a terrorist attack just weeks before the election.

On Thursday, Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., a frequent critic of the Obama administration's foreign policy in general and its handling of the Benghazi attack in particular, said White House officials who lied about the attack are "scumbags." He made the remark in an interview with radio host Mike Gallagher.

Lovell testified that it was clear that the attack was hostile action and not a protest run amok, as the Obama administration initially described it.

"Four individuals died. We obviously did not respond in time to get there," he said.

"There was a lot of looking to the State Department for what it was that they wanted, and in the deference to the Libyan people and the sense of deference to the desires of the State Department," he said.

Asked whether the military was allowed to adequately respond, Lovell said it was not. "The military could have made a response of some sort," he said.

McKeon's statement disputed Lovell's assertions based on his committee's interviews with more than a dozen witnesses in the operational chain of command and its review of thousands of pages of transcripts, emails and other documents.

"We have no evidence that Department of State officials delayed the decision to deploy what few resources the Defense Department had available to respond," McKeon said. "Lovell did not further the investigation or reveal anything new, he was another painful reminder of the agony our military felt that night: wanting to respond but unable to do so."

The unusual rebuke also pitted McKeon, who has said he was satisfied that the military did all it could, against Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., a House committee chairman who has doggedly pursued the question of whether the military was told to "stand down" on the night of the attacks.

Congress has concluded that the military was never told to "stand down" and that assets such as fighter jets in Italy or other help weren't ready to respond in time for the two attacks that occurred eight hours apart.

Rep. Adam Smith of Washington state, the top Democrat on Armed Services, echoed McKeon's assessment, and said it was "deeply disturbing that false claims continue to be made about that tragic night."

The Obama administration initially described the attack as a response to the video that had sparked protests at the U.S. Embassy in Cairo and elsewhere. Susan Rice, then the U.N. ambassador, went on Sunday television talk shows and described it as such. Those comments have stirred up political opposition ever since, as military and other officials have said it was clear it was a terror attack unrelated to the video.

The latest furor has centered on a newly released email from White House deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes that shows that within days of the attack the White House embraced talking points for Rice that blamed the turmoil that erupted in North African and Middle East cities in September 2012 on an anti-Islamic video.

Also at issue is why the Rhodes email, released through a Freedom of Information Act request from a conservative legal group, was not included among documents the White House released last year regarding the response to the Benghazi attack. White House spokesman Jay Carney said the email referred to the upheaval and rioting throughout the region, not Benghazi in particular, even though Benghazi is briefly mentioned.

"This release through a FOIA request, you know, has revived this story, but it doesn't mean that the facts have changed. They haven't," Carney said.

Angered by the omission of the email in material subpoenaed by the House, Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, called on Secretary of State John Kerry to testify before Congress.

On the Senate floor, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Graham renewed their call for a select committee to investigate.

"This is a cover-up," McCain said.

Lovell told the committee it was clearly not an attack borne of the protests.

The U.S. has not yet identified those responsible or the attack but now believes it was carried out by Islamist militants who set fire to the diplomatic outpost and engaged Stevens' security officials and others in gunfire. Stevens died of smoke inhalation in a safe room in the diplomatic compound. The diplomats were aided by officials from a CIA outpost a mile away.

A Republican congressman is drafting legislation to give the military and intelligence agency the authority to kill those responsible for the attack. Rep. Duncan Hunter of California said Thursday that he will try to add his bill to the annual defense policy legislation when the House Armed Services Committee considers the measure on Wednesday.

Hunter said his legislation is the same as the authority that the Congress gave the government after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

"I don't know why they don't ask for it. They must not care," Hunter said in an interview. "It shouldn't take Congress to do this. They should have asked for this right after the attacks."

Hunter said his legislation was prompted by closed-door testimony from Gen. Martin Dempsey, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who told the panel in October that the U.S. cannot strike the perpetrators under the authorization for use of military force, the 2001 law that applies to terrorists.

Associated Press writers Matthew Lee and Jim Kuhnhenn contributed to this report.

Guardsman sues over Army's new tattoo rules

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — A Kentucky National Guard soldier with aspirations of joining a U.S. Army special operations unit wants a federal judge to overturn the military's new regulations concerning soldiers with tattoos.

Staff Sgt. Adam C. Thorogood of Nashville, Tennessee, said the tattoos covering his left arm from the elbow to the wrist aren't harmful, but the Army is using the body art against him and stopping him from fulfilling a dream of joining "The Nightstalkers," the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment at Fort Campbell, Kentucky. Thorogood's attorneys said the new rules are preventing their client from seeking appointment as a warrant officer.

Thorogood, 28, sued Thursday in U.S. District Court in Paducah, Kentucky, seeking to have the new rules declared unconstitutional. He is seeking $100 million in damages.

The regulations went into effect in March cover a variety of appearance-related issues including hair styles, fingernails, glasses and jewelry. The rules ban tattoos below the knee or elbow. Soldiers who already have the ink are grandfathered in. Under the new regulations, any soldier with tattoos is barred from seeking a promotion to warrant officer or commissioning as an officer.

"You've got a soldier who is about as gung ho as you get ... then you've got this regulation you read about on Facebook and you don't have a career," said Robin May, a Kentucky-based attorney who represents Thorogood. "That would be a blow."

May said the new regulations violate a constitutional ban on laws that retroactively change the legal consequences or status of actions that were committed before the enactment of the law. The ban also infringes upon Thorogood's free speech rights, May said.

An Army spokesman did not immediately return a message Thursday. In an online video posted in March, Sgt. Maj. of the Army Raymond F. Chandler III addressed why the changes were made, saying appearance matters and should "be a matter of personal pride" to soldiers.

"The Army is a profession, and one of the ways our leaders and the American public measure our professionalism is by our appearance," Chandler said. "Every soldier has the responsibility to understand and follow these standards. Leaders at all levels also have a responsibility to interpret and enforce these standards, which begins by setting the example."

Tattoos have long been a part of military culture, but as they have become more popular, and more prominently displayed on the body, the various branches have been regulating them in to try to maintain a professional look. The Air Force bans tattoos covering more than a quarter of an exposed body part, under regulations revised in 2011. In 2006, the Navy announced that forearm tattoos could be no wider than a hand's breadth.

The Marine Corps has been cracking down on tattoos for years. In 2007, the Corps banned sleeve tattoos and those covering the leg below the knee.

Thorogood spent 10 years on active duty in the Army as a decorated soldier and sniper before switching to the Reserves, a move that allowed him to pursue a degree in aerospace at Middle Tennessee State University and pursue certifications in flying planes. Attorney Ken Humphries said Thorogood's goal was to submit an application for an appointment as a warrant officer, which are usually technical leaders and specialists, and become a helicopter pilot.

Thorogood has 11 tattoos, including three on his left arm featuring a three-member sniper team, a second of skulls and the sniper logo of a serpent and spear and an ambigram of the words "Fear Is the Mind Killer." After the tattoo regulations took effect, body art that Thorogood had before the regulations could get him charged with a military offense if he even applied for the position.

"It disqualifies a candidate for cosmetic reasons," Humphries said.

VA suspends 3 officials amid Phoenix VA probe

PHOENIX — Three executives of the veterans hospital in Phoenix have been placed on administrative leave amid an investigation into allegations of corruption and unnecessary deaths at the facility, federal officials announced Thursday.

Phoenix VA Health Care System Director Sharon Helman and associate director Lance Robinson would be placed on leave "until further notice," U.S. Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric K. Shinseki said. The third employee was not identified in a statement Shinseki issued from Washington.

The Phoenix facility has been under fire in recent weeks over allegations that up to 40 patients may have died because of delays in care and that the hospital kept a secret list of patients waiting for appointments to hide the treatment delays.

Earlier Thursday, before the announcement that she would be placed on leave, Helman and the hospital's chief of staff denied any knowledge of a secret list and said they had found no evidence of patient deaths due to delayed care.

"We take those allegations very seriously," Helman told The Associated Press Thursday morning, noting she welcomed an independent review by the VA Office of Inspector General. Helman's office declined to comment after the announcement Thursday afternoon.

The claims are the latest to come to light as VA hospitals around the country struggle to handle the huge volume of patients who need medical attention, including aging vets from World War II, Korea and Vietnam and a newer influx from wars over the last decade. In the past year, VA facilities in South Carolina, Florida, Georgia and Washington state have been linked to delays in patient care or poor oversight.

Shinseki said the move to put the Phoenix officials on leave was requested by the inspector general's office, which has sent investigators to the facility.

"We believe it is important to allow an independent, objective review to proceed," Shinseki said. "These allegations, if true, are absolutely unacceptable and if the Inspector General's investigation substantiates these claims, swift and appropriate action will be taken."

Helman said before the announcement that she takes her job very seriously and is personally offended by the claims of misconduct.

"I have given over 20 years of service to this mission. I am proud to lead this hospital," Helman said. "I have never wavered from the ethical standards that I have held my entire career, and I will continue to give these veterans what they deserve, which is the best health care."

On Tuesday, three Arizona congressmen called for Helman to step down amid allegations of gross mismanagement and neglect at the facility.

Republican Reps. David Schweikert, Matt Salmon and Trent Franks also sent a letter to Shinseki, asking him to remove Helman and her leadership team.

Salmon said Thursday that the VA chief made the right decision.

"Hopefully, this is the first step in rebuilding the trust and restoring the confidence that our Arizona veterans have lost in our VA system," the congressman said in a statement.

But the nation's head of veteran health services told a Senate Veterans Affairs Committee hearing Wednesday in Washington that a preliminary review found nothing to support the allegations leveled against the Phoenix hospital system and its leadership.

"To date, we have found no evidence of a secret list, and we have found no patients who have died because they have been on a wait list," said Robert Petzel, undersecretary for health at the VA's Veterans Health Administration.

Dr. Samuel Foote, who had worked for the Phoenix VA for more than 20 years before retiring in December, brought the allegations to light and says supervisors ignored his complaints. He accused Arizona VA leaders of collecting bonuses for reducing patient wait times, but he said the purported successes resulted from data manipulation rather than improved service for veterans, and that up to 40 patients died while awaiting care.

Associated Press Writer Pauline Jelinek in Washington contributed to this report.

As Afghanistan war winds down, defense contractors face layoffs, pay cuts

As many as 1,000 employees of Tampa, Fla.-area defense contractors are facing layoffs or pay cuts as the war in Afghanistan winds down.

“There will be significant cuts,” said Greg Celestan, chairman and chief executive officer of Celestar Corp., one of several companies that will be affected by a reduction in spending that will come with the end of the war in Afghanistan. “A number of companies are having meetings with existing employees, telling them not to take out any serious financial commitments in the near future.”

Hundreds of employees, “even up to 1,000,” will face layoffs or pay cuts of as much as 20 to 30 percent, Celestan said.

Overall, the number of Department of Defense contractor personnel in the U.S. Central Command region dropped by about 26 percent from October to last month, according to a CENTCOM report. The region consists of 20 countries, including Afghanistan, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Syria and Yemen.

On Wednesday, Leidos, a Reston, Va.-based company that provides professional, scientific and technical support services to CENTCOM’s Joint Intelligence Operations Center at MacDill Air Force Base, Fla., issued a "warn notice" with the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity saying it may lay off 93 workers in June.

Leidos submitted a proposal for a follow-on contract for CENTCOM, said spokeswoman Jennifer Gephart, and the layoffs will take place if the company does not win its bid.

“We expect an award announcement by early June, with an anticipated contract start date of July 1,” she said. “If Leidos is unsuccessful at winning the bid, the date of the permanent layoff is expected to commence on June 30.”

Gephart said that if Leidos doesn’t get the contract, the company “will assist employees in their search in finding employment elsewhere in the company as well as with other companies, including the new contractor to CENTCOM.”

The loss of Tampa-area jobs related to the military is no surprise. A study conducted last year for the Florida Defense Alliance projected a loss of 13,000 defense-related jobs in the area by 2015 “as the result of defense activities.” That represents a 9 percent drop from 141,700 jobs in the region in 2011, according to the Florida Defense Industry Economic Impact Analysis report.

With almost $14 billion in gross regional product, the military accounted for about 7 percent of all economic activity in the region, according to the report.

Regardless of the outcome of the Leidos contract, the area's contracting community is preparing for cuts, said Celestan, past chairman of the Greater Tampa Chamber of Commerce and a member of the Port Tampa Bay Board of Directors.

“This is definitely going to affect our company and other defense contractors,” said Celestan, whose company is a subcontractor to Leidos, providing intelligence analysis.

In addition to reductions in the number of contracts, the contracts that are awarded will be for significantly less money, he said.

“The numbers are going to come down dramatically, from 20 to 30 percent cuts, not only in numbers of personnel but the (contract) rates are coming down dramatically too,” Celestan said. “Most of the people continuing to work will have to take pay cuts. A lot of it is tied to CENTCOM and the drawdown of work in Afghanistan.”

Celestan said about 30 of his company’s 125 employees will be affected, either being laid off or receiving pay cuts. Other jobs are moving out of Tampa as the company diversifies in an effort to stay afloat, he said.

Smaller companies in the Tampa area are feeling the pinch, too, as the result of overall reductions in military spending and an uncertain future.

The failure of Afghan President Hamid Karzai to sign a bilateral security agreement with the U.S. is only adding to the uncertainty for contractors, because without that in place, the U.S. will not maintain a military presence beyond December. Though each of the two men in the run-off to replace Karzai is expected to sign that agreement, the White House has yet to announce how large a force will remain in Afghanistan.

Then, there is the overall reduction in military spending. The combination of factors is making it very difficult to run a business, said Joe Bianco, a principle in Legion Systems, a Tampa veteran-owned company that is focused primarily on special operations and intelligence support services.

“These changes have a disproportionately negative effect on small business,” Bianco said.

“You can’t plan,” he said, adding that the stress has ripple effects among employees and across the economy.

“You have now created instability in their lives, with a still-depressed housing market,” he said. “It’s not like there is upward mobility or even lateral mobility. That has a negative effect on the local economy, putting their livelihood in question. There is a lot of stress and worry, and when you worry about your job, you stop spending. That has a ripple effect.”

Defense Department contractor positions in the CENTCOM region are disappearing as the U.S. military looks to end combat operations there in December.

Between October and last month, the number of DOD contractor personnel in the region fell by 26 percent to more than 78,000, according to an April CENTCOM report. The vast majority of those personnel — more than 61,000 — work in Afghanistan. About a third are U.S. citizens, according to the report.

By comparison, there are about 33,000 U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

The largest percentage of contractors in Afghanistan — more than 20,000 — perform logistics and maintenance functions, according to the report called “Contractor Support Of U.S. Operations In The USCENTCOM Area of Responsibility,” issued last month. Construction, base support, management, transportation and interpreting services make up the bulk of the rest.

Pacific Pathways: Army prepares new tack for deploying forces in Pacific

FORT SHAFTER, Hawaii — In the wake of President Barack Obama's Asia trip aimed at offering reassurances that the administration remains committed to the Pacific rebalance, U.S. Army Pacific is planning to bolster the land-based force’s relevance in the region.

Under Pacific Pathways, the Army will develop small units that will be forward-deployed for quick response to humanitarian emergencies or regional threats.

The plan is also a way for the Army to create a semi-permanent presence in parts of the Pacific where it’s not politically or financially feasible to establish bases. And because the unit and much of its equipment will remain forward deployed, it will provide an efficient resource in a time of budget cuts and a shrinking military.

But analysts and some military leaders have questioned whether the initiative will duplicate Marines’ skills and assets and is a “solution in search of a problem.”

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of the Pacific pivot

While the plan would use the series of established military exercises with Pacific nations as “training pathways,” it will also support more substantial exchanges of subject expertise and personnel, USARPAC spokesman Jim Guzior wrote in an email to Stars and Stripes.

The Army is involved in a host of annual multilateral exercises in the Pacific, with countries such as the Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Cambodia and India. Materiel is normally transported to and from each exercise at great expense. Instead of a series of Army units traveling to an exercise for 10 to 30 days and returning home, the new pathways model would deploy a smaller unit whose “nucleus” will move from one exercise to the next, USARPAC commander Gen. Vincent Brooks told reporters earlier this month during a land force symposium held in Honolulu.

And implementation of the plan is months, not years, away.

“We are headed toward being ready to start loading the vessels that are going to move here in a few months,” Brooks said. “It’s not just an idea; we’re going into execution with this.”

The new units would be made up of about 700 troops, although the number will vary depending on the mission. Deployments could potentially last six months or longer.

On Monday, Obama announced a 10-year agreement with the Philippines that gives the U.S. military greater access to certain bases on the archipelago. Pacific Pathways will undoubtedly benefit from large equipment that can be pre-positioned under the agreement.

“I think that Pacific Pathways is a direct response to the Pentagon’s 2012 Defense Strategic Guidance to rebalance toward the Asia-Pacific region,” Christopher Dougherty, a fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments in Washington, D.C., wrote in an email interview with Stars and Stripes. “For decades, Korea has been the primary focus of Army forces in [U.S. Pacific Command], and Pacific Pathways is an attempt to break out of that mindset and demonstrate that the Army can contribute to stability and security beyond the Korean peninsula. If the Army can do that, they may be able to argue more successfully for preserving their end strength and budget.”

Brooks told reporters that Pacific Pathways will be built around a truncated brigade structure, taking its leadership and one or two of its subordinate battalions, then adding elements that are not “organic” to a brigade, such as aviation. The unit will morph to adapt to the particular needs of partner nations and any given exercise.

The number of soldiers under Brooks’ command has increased during the past several years to 106,000, he said, but funding is not keeping pace. Pacific Pathways is “an efficient way for us to use the limited resources that we’re going to have,” he said.

Brooks declined to say from where soldiers for the new unit would be drawn. Outside of South Korea, most of the troops under his command are either in Hawaii or Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state.

The Pacific Pathways concept has drawn skepticism since it went public late last fall.

A Washington Post article in December framed the initiative as setting up a “turf battle” with the Marines, the service that is designed to maneuver amid sea, shore and land.

Indeed, the Marines are already positioned for a similar role. The 31st Marine Expeditionary Unit conducts multilateral activities from Okinawa, and by 2016, about 2,500 Marines are expected to be rotating through a southern base in Darwin, Australia, every six months.

In January, the Washington, D.C.,-based Brookings Institution published a brutal assessment of Pacific Pathways by Marine Lt. Col. Aaron Marx, describing the Army’s proposed expeditionary model in the Pacific as not a supplement to the Navy and Marines but as “simply a less-capable replication.” He dismissed it as a Marine Expeditionary Unit “without the ships, the expertise or doctrine.”

During the April land-forces symposium, Maj. Gen. Richard Simcock, deputy commander of U.S. Marine Corps Forces, was asked during a panel how the Marines and Army can clearly define their roles in the Pacific. He said that just as he heard criticism during the 12 years of operations in Iraq and Afghanistan that the U.S. didn’t need two armies, he’s now hearing there’s no need for two Marine Corps.

He said the commitment of the Marine Corps as an “extended land force” was “maybe not the best mission” for the service but argued it was what the nation needed during operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom. “Pacific Pathways may not be the best fit for the U.S. Army, but it may be what is required for the United States right now and throughout the Pacific region.”

Dougherty called this an “imperfect” analogy because there was “an obvious demand” for more ground forces in Afghanistan and Iraq.

“Put another way, there was a pressing problem and a clear solution,” he said. “Pacific Pathways, on the other hand, looks like a solution in search of a problem. There does not appear to be insatiable demand in the Asia-Pacific region for combined training exercises with U.S. infantry battalions. At a time when the Army’s budget is declining and there are other more pressing problems to solve, this may not be the most efficient use of resources.”

Even some high-ranking brass have wondered aloud about the logistics. Lt. Gen. John Wissler, commander of the Third Marine Expeditionary Force and Marine Forces Japan, told reporters in April that the Navy’s shortage of amphibious battle ships could inhibit Pacific Pathways.

Even Brooks admitted that bringing Pacific Pathways to implementation has been slow, particularly because it involves diplomatic and military relationships with a number of Asian nations.

“Anything that looks like a change has to be understood and accepted in the region and done transparently,” he told reporters.

Peter Chalk, a senior political analyst at the RAND Corp. who has written about the Army’s future role in Southeast Asia, said the concept of small Army expeditionary forces would enhance the service’s ability to deliver and disseminate humanitarian supplies, restore critical infrastructure and provide emergency medical support.

“I think the key is that they have to be small because within the Asia-Pacific there is still an awareness and a suspicion of large-scale U.S. forces being stationed in their region that would unwittingly involve these countries in regional power plays between Washington and Beijing,” Chalk said.

“If the Army continues to shrink,” Dougherty concluded, “Pacific Pathways may help offset the effects of a smaller force by maintaining combat forces forward. This would greatly reduce the time required to get forces into theater as compared with units stationed in the continental United States, thereby improving the Army’s ability to respond quickly to crises.”

olson.wyatt@stripes.com